Christian life is all about relationships! Christians believe that God is not one Person but three, and that they have infinitely rich and happy relationships with one another. We believe further that the Three desire to share their happiness with us. Everything flows from this project of theirs.
Thus, each of the sacraments is a personal encounter with Christ. At every important moment in my life, Christ is there to welcome me. He sets things up so that at birth, adolescence, marriage, sickness and dying, he can meet me and enrich me in special ways. In the Eucharist Christ is the welcoming host. The community listens to his Word and responds as best it can. We share table-fellowship with him in Communion.
Sin too is about relationships. It is not like disobeying a rule of the road when driving. It happens when I wound the precious fabric of human and divine relationships. I hurt myself, others and God. The sacrament of reconciliation is not just a telling of my sins but a restoring of good relationships. ‘Go now and sin no more!’
When human history is completed, there awaits me a cosmic and ever-flowing celebration of good relationships, born of ecstatic joy in God and in all others. We call this heaven: everyone will be a friend to me, and I to them.
Even dying becomes a meeting with a loving and caring God who comes to bring me home. If remedial education in my loving is needed, it takes place then. To live the Christian faith is to live in life-giving relationships!
Even dying becomes a meeting with a loving and caring God who comes to bring me home. If remedial education in my loving is needed, it takes place then. To live the Christian faith is to live in life-giving relationships!
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